Summit Park Snow Plowing Held Hostage
County Manager Struggles to Find Funds to Plow Snow in Summit Park
Listen to KPCW newscast for more information
Letter sent from Kevin Callahan, Public Works Director
Dear Homeowner Representatives
Please review the attached notice to you describing the difficult situation the County Road Department is in relative to providing on-going services to our residential subdivisions. It is our committed mission to continue to provide high quality road maintenance now and in the future but we are facing some serious funding challenges. Since you represent many of the subdivisions who may be affected by the budget decisions made by the County Council on this matter, I felt it was appropriate that you be informed of the issues and their deliberations. If you have questions regarding these issues, please feel free to call me at 435. 615.3978 or on my cell at 435.640.0510. I look forward to your participation in helping us to make these difficult decisions.
Kevin Callahan
Public Works Director
Possible Changes to Road Maintenance Services for Subdivisions within Service Area # 6
In December 2011, the Summit County Council adopted their annual 2012 budget. That budget included a tax increase for property owners within Service Area # 6. This is a special service district created in 1977 to provide urban road maintenance services to residential subdivisions. The Council increased the tax for the first time in 35 years because the cost of maintaining the 81 miles of subdivision roads had grown more quickly than tax revenues. In the last few years, annual……(read more)
20 Comments
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I dont get it. Why is the county targeting Summit Park as the root of their problem? There are so many other neighborhoods at risk, Jeremy Ranch, Pinebrook, North Shore, Silver Springs, Highland Estates, Trailside and more are all in Service District 6, but they don’t have money for Summit Park? The red headed step child is neglected once again. I hope if they have to reduce the service, it will be equally distributed across the board. But if history repeats itself, you better get a pair of snow shoes!!!!!
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New Summit Park roads drains county coffer…?? unexpected?? Listen to this KPCW newscast.
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From what I gather the county didn’t manage their expenditures. Really, they gave us much needed road improvements but now they are saying there isn’t enough money snow removal. We hardly had snow last year. Who mismanaged the budget? Certainly not the residents. Why is the county broke? Sounds like our County Manager isn’t managing the budget.
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Seriously, they basically say they are going to do a cruddy job plowing our roads as if that will save money. Most people here work Monday-Friday. How about doing a good job Monday-Friday and slack off on the weekends when a major majority don’t need to get out. Better yet, I seem to remember just paying my taxes which were increased. Is Summit Park being singled out here? Are we going to slack off on all the subdivision in the same way. We pay taxes just like everyone else! If they slack here they better slack there…….sounds like we are going to be FORCED into being like Timberline.
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I think we should just vote to let them raise taxes by that $80 a year. In the long run it will save us a lot more money than we will lose by the damage to our cars, access to emergency facilities, etc. We have to accept that we live in an extremely high snow area that needs to be cleared more often than other areas.
Those of us who pay people to plow our driveways pay probably twice that $80 in every month of winter.
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Classic scare tactics…
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Summit Park residents not only need roads plowed to receive emergency services…we also provide those services. Please keep the roads clear so that those of us who work irregular hours to provide emergency services are able to access our homes and hospitals.
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So who is interested in attending the meeting on the 26th? I may go; anyone interested in carpooling?
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I’ll go with you.
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Excellent, Chris, also I checked out what exactly comprises Service Area #6 and if I’m reading the map correctly, it includes SP, Pinebrook, Jeremy, Trailside, Ranch Place, Silver Springs, and some other areas. Thought that was interesting…
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Richard on Lower Evergreen: I will be going to the meeting
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I second the comments about emergency services. We’ve had them at our house twice for my daughter’s epilepsy! The thing is that if they take services from our subdivision they need to take them from the others to make it fair.
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Just saw the red sander plow go down the street today(11-19-12) Makes no sense
for the county to send it out when it’s 50 degrees out and the snow has
melted and roads are dry if they are $200,000 short in budget. Explain that one
to me County?!!
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I second the comment about sending out the trucks and plows several days after the snowfall. Can we hear and know that they will be dealing with ALL the neighborhoods in the same manner?
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I’ve been trying to gather some information about this. Service area #6 is huge, it covers a good portion of unincorporated Summit County.
see map
http://www.co.summit.ut.us/government/downloads/ServiceArea6.pdf
I am still puzzled by a couple of things:
1. Why is Summit Park singled out. I have heard rumors that other neighborhoods, such as Pinebrook, have separate snowplowing contracts. This may be the reason why Summit Park is singled out, but the county public records website is down until further notice, so I have not been able to research this.
2. From what I understand, the petition was filed by a woman in Kamas (part of service area 6). And the petition was filed before the deadline. My understanding, is that if your petition is filed before the deadline, then it should have made it onto the ballot. I don’t recall seeing it on the ballot. So who was asleep here?
I will not be able to attend the meeting (which I could not find the notice for), So could someone please ask these questions?
Thanks
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Neil, I’m pretty sure I’m going tomorrow and will ask these questions.
Nancy
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MEETING DATE CHANGE!
A few of us showed up for the meeting on Monday, only to find out it was rescheduled. The new meeting date is Wednesday NOV 28TH in Coalville at the County offices at 2:45 pm; contact Annette Singleton at asingleton@summitcounty.org for any updates or changes.
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I wonder if they bothered to tell anyone
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I have not listen to the KCPW broadcast yet. A lot of talk about the budget,,,,,,,, where are the numbers? Until the numbers are posted in a place where all of us can easily see them, like on this site, this is all talk. No doubt it costs a lot to deal with snow in summit park but, how much is a lot?
Numbers would help and a way for us to pay for what we need done must be found. With the way government works, how could we know if the extra we kick in would not be spent somewhere else. In a mild snow winter would we get the money back? Fat chance on that one.
While the new Stone Walls on lower Park View are nice to look at,,,,,, what a WASTE OF MONEY when we have real road issues to face. How many gallons of diesel was wasted hauling and stacking big rocks on the side of the road?
Aside from the cost, as a resident of Summit Park for almost 20 years, Those who handle our snow removal have done a great job.
Larry
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I wasn’t able to attend today. Did anyone go?